Dusk
by Zelha
Summary: Itachi and his life with a certain pink-haired kunoichi. Thoughts about an ending feared by her, awaited by both.


**Disclaimer: **Still, I don't own.

**Dusk**

I came to her that dusk.

She was well aware of my presence behind her. Her dark hair flowing with the wind, her tresses drenched with the pain of absence. She became an outcast the same instant in which my foolish little brother turned her down.

She cried until she had no tears left.

The light in her eyes went away. She became dull, oblivious of her mere surroundings. Her Hokage and her sensei were concerned, but she didn't pay attention to any of them. Too much for the Copy Ninja Kakashi and the Legendary Sucker, Tsunade.

She decided to look for me… and kill me, for all the pain I put my foolish brother through.

She didn't understand at that moment my real intentions.

She traveled with her boisterous blond friend, the Kyuubi vessel. But soon enough she lost him on the race across the treetops. He was too fast for her… or so he thought in his dense mental process.

She lost him on purpose. She had heard in the last village about a pair of men, covered in dark cloaks, camping in the deep forest.

She came to me that midnight.

She didn't have any intention of fighting my shark partner. She entered our site unperturbed, like she was entering her room back at her Leaf home.

Kisame was outraged; I was mildly surprised.

She lifted those jade eyes and stared at the Sharingan with neither fear nor curiosity. That picked my own inquisitiveness.

And then she said it. "You are the worst of all the monsters that walk on this world."

I blinked while Kisame laughed.

She didn't launch herself against me, she just merely smacked her fist on the ground, making it shatter and opening a wide fissure. Kisame stopped laughing and stared, amused.

She pointed a bloody finger at me, green looking into red defiantly, brows furrowed.

"This ends here. You'll die… or you'll have to kill me."

I decided to make my move.

"Why are you threatening your own life by trying to upset us, kunoichi?" I asked lowly.

She chuckled without humor.

"Fight me, Uchiha. I have no life to put at risk."

We fought, hard and ruthless. Kisame was amazed at the pink-haired girl's strength. She undoubtedly was trained by that worth for nothing Sannin, the gambler woman.

I almost smirked when she gave away her motives to defy me. My very own little brother; my Achilles' heel; my proclaimed executioner; the avenger of the Red and White Fan Clan; he was the reason for her inner madness.

I defeated her with the Tsukiyomi, probing in her mind, searching for answers and her humiliation.

Her inner self cried out in rage when she saw me, walking in those dark halls of despair. She lunged at me but failed when I looked at her. Her mind fell to pieces at my feet sobbing when she recognized the Uchiha features in my face and eyes.

Then I understood. My foolish little brother undid her. She was broken.

I came back to reality and her body went limp. She fell unconscious and I made my way back to headquarters.

Deidara and Sasori were stunned when I took her as my guest.

I spent several days watching her sleep. She was exhausted, both in mind and body. When she awoke, I was there. She glared when she recognized me.

"Itachi-san", she whispered, confused. "Why didn't you kill me?"

"I don't have a motive to do that."

Secretly amused, I saw her trying to understand my words.

Like a broken doll, she had to regain strength to stand, walk, and even pick up the sticks to eat. I didn't understand why she let her body deteriorate with such lack of care back in Konoha. Deidara gloated when he pissed her off telling her that she was ugly. Sasori didn't pay her more attention than to an annoying fly.

But Kisame had to pick fights with her, having seen her strength and skills in the forest. He liked being right in everything, and he sustained that the pink kunoichi wasn't more useful than an empty box.

Little did he know, I liked to be right as well… and I was determined to make him eat his words.

I trained when everyone was asleep. Every night we sparred, hard, until she fainted in exhaustion or fell into hysteria. She enjoyed our spars, I knew it, but that didn't keep her from insulting me, my last name, my bloodline trait and my foolish and weak little brother.

She was bitter.

The night she knocked Kisame out in a fight with only her fists and her legs, she was satisfied with her triumph over my bothersome partner. Then I decided to pick her inner self with my Mangekyou Sharingan.

Inner Sakura was as fascinating as ever, yelling insults at me for my actions against my family and against Sasuke.

I trapped her inner and told her a few things, stroking her ego and her sense of womanhood.

Three weeks later, outer Sakura was my lover.

She said that she slept with me because I tricked her with the Sharingan. I let her be, amused by her rage and hypnotized by her passion.

At least, she was feeling something. She wasn't dull anymore.

Kisame learned to respect her. Deidara dyed her hair. Sasori painted her on a canvas and Zetsu taught her how to cook. The boss was pleased, and tried to prove her loyalty sending us both to kill someone. She didn't know our target was one of the vessel demons. I'm sure she was reminded of her noisy friend, my last target and the container of the ultimate power.

I killed the old man swiftly, and she didn't cry.

I asked her about that while she was lying between the sheets with me, back at headquarters.

"I can't cry anymore", she said. "Your brother took all my tears."

For the first time in my whole missing-nin life, I was irritated and jealous of my foolish little brother.

Five years. Five years since she joined us in the Akatsuki. Five years of intimacy like I've never experienced. She asked us all to stop calling her Sakura. She was now Kurayami, the only female assassin in our organization; beautiful and deadly. Her entry in the Bingo Book was celebrated by all of us.

Until we met my last opponent… and her downfall.

My foolish little brother was older now. He joined the ANBU hunter-nin squad from Leaf.

He and the blond Kyuubi vessel were dumbstruck when they acquainted with my female partner. She was completely different from the little, weak girl they knew.

She watched impassively when Naruto cried. She watched blankly when Sasuke lost his temper and yelled at her in anger.

They watched her come to me and hold my hand. Enraged, they defied us to battle.

She was defeated by the blond, who had to summon the power of the nine-tailed fox to correspond her monstrous strength. Meanwhile, Sasuke was fighting me with a wrath that matched my desire to protect my companion.

He defeated me. I don't know exactly how, but he did. Bloody and bruised, exhausted and chakra spent, he raised his katana to finally reach his goal and avenge our family.

I heard her scream mutedly, I felt her warm hands cradling my body. I felt her warm tears fall onto my face. I felt her long, dark hair entwined with my own.

I came to her that dusk.

She looked up with a soft smirk, letting the kunai fall to the ground. I watched her blood pooling around her body, staining the pristine hospital floor. I watched her and she watched me back. I watched her sighing contentedly and smile. I smiled too.

We walked back to the dusk… together.

_  
- Tenna' ento lye omenta -_

**Note:** Kurayami means "darkness" ;P


End file.
